Exiled activist Anna Kwok vows to keep fighting after Hong Kong jails her father

WASHINGTON (AP) — A prominent Hong Kong activist in exile in the U.S. said a court ruling back in Hong Kong to imprison her father for eight months has only made her more determined to fight for the territory and its people.

“I think obviously the (Hong Kong) government wants to use guilt, wants to use a lot of emotions to weight me down, but I’ve found my way to really find my calling in activism for Hong Kong,” said Anna Kwok, who is wanted by the Hong Kong government for her pro-democracy activism.

“So I’m not going to back down. I’m just going to be more strategic with more long-term thinking and be more dedicated to the Hong Kong cause,” she said.

Kwok spoke with The Associated Press on Friday, one day after a Hong Kong court jailed her 69-year-old father, Kwok Yin-sang, for attempting to withdraw roughly $11,000 from her insurance policy.

Her father bought the policy when she was a toddler, and she gained control of it when she reached the age of 18. In 2025, he sought to terminate the policy and withdraw the money, the court heard. He was arrested and accused of trying to deal with funds belonging to an “absconder.”

It was the first case targeting a family member of a pro-democracy advocate wanted by Hong Kong to have been brought under a 2024 national security law.

Anna Kwok, who is the executive director of the Washington-based Hong Kong Democracy Council, called the sentence “ridiculous” and said it brought home the personal costs of her activism.

“I did go through this journey of finding out what activism means to me, now with this added layer of … very real personal cost that is not faced by me but faced by my family,” she said.

Her father’s case drew criticism from the U.S. government.

Riley Barnes, the assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, called for Kwok Yin-sang’s immediate release. “The targeting of individuals who advocate for basic freedoms in Hong Kong and their families is unacceptable,” Barnes wrote Thursday in a social media post.

Anna Kwok is among 34 people for whom the Hong Kong police have offered bounties, widely seen as part of a crackdown on dissent following mass anti-government protests in 2019. The police offered 1 million Hong Kong dollars (about $127,900) for information leading to her arrest. The government also banned anyone from handling any funds for her.

She is accused of lobbying for foreign sanctions and engaging in other hostile activities against China and Hong Kong during meetings with foreign politicians and government officials.

Kwok said she is no longer able to speak with her family and friends back in Hong Kong. She said she decided to do an on-camera interview following her father’s sentencing to “show my family and people who care about me that I cannot really communicate with that I’m doing okay, please don’t worry too much about me.”

She said she would not let the Hong Kong government succeed in burdening her with the guilt of putting her family at risk.

“I have to constantly remind myself that it’s not my fault, but the regime’s fault and the regime’s purpose, to do something like this,” Kwok said.